ICC may use 'timeless' Test for World Championship final
My attempt here is to present how the Think Tank of International Cricket ponders over the deciding factor of a World Test Champion. The First ever World Test Championship is slated to be held in 2013. ICC is keen to have a clear winner from the inaugural World Test Championship and hence they are exploring the possibilities.
ICC programme for World Test Championship – a distant dream to reality
ICC has decided to hold a prestigious event for determination of the World Champion Team for the Test for the first time. It will therefore be a unique event and will help to evince keen interest to the Cricket community as a whole. The entire picture of present ICC ranking has to undergo suitable change so as to get a World Test Champion through an event proposed to be conducted on a gap of every four years. The Future Tours Programme (FTP) is aimed to have a structured tour programme of full member Cricket nations. It is contemplated that such nations should play each other one at home and one away which is mandatory every year. It is proposed that the four top ranking nations of the years preceding the championship year ie 2013 will compete in semi- finals and for a final. The Final test should get a clear winner. There should not be any scope for a draw under any circumstances and hence the ICC is toasting the idea of hosting a 'Timeless" test. This means that the final Test to get a World Test Champion will fight it out for days together to get a result, irrespective of the hurdles and to be the World Test Champion. Once this event is getting the result proposed, the entire FTP can be moulded in such a way that the top ranking Nation of the four years would fight it out for the Championship. In case, one or two teams become the top ranking nation for more than a year during the span of four years, the proposed semi final structure may have to be modified so as to induct a team for the remaining positions. Current status of ICC test ranking – review
The top playing Nations are keenly interested to ensure that their ICC ranking is better than the others and hence with such a notion, now a days, the Tests between such top nations are more aggressive and agile. The idea has been with ICC for quite some time but now, with a marking of year 2013, it is slowly picking up. The year 2013 is important as England is the host for Ashes in this year and the final of the inaugural World Test Championship is to be held at Lords – the mecca of Cricket.Anyhow from time to time, the think tank of ICC is breaking their brain for ways and means to determine a World Test Champion and we can expect more and more such ideas in time to come. Any how a Cricket Test requires all the acumen and stamina of the other two forms of the game, ie ODIs and Twenty20 but for Five days. The pinnacle of the game lies in the fact that the physical and mental intensity of a five days Test is the actual testimony of Cricket. ICC Chief Executive optimistic on timeless Test match
Haroon Lorgat, the ICC chief executive, has suggested that the final of the inaugural World Test Championship, which will be held in England in 2013, could be a 'timeless' Test and that the eventual solution was still "a work in progress". We can hope that by the end of 2011, a clear picture will emerge.
